I’ve just grabbed a new UB450 from JL, which I expect to use as part of my bedroom system. However, as I also have a UB820 I decided to connect it to my existing front room a/v system so that I could compare the two players (as best I can). The YouTube comparison review, posted previously in this thread, doesn’t tell the whole story, based on my findings …
I’ve connected my UB450 in the same way that I have my UB820 — video HDMI to a port on my LG 49SM8500PLA TV, audio to an HDMI port on my old Yamaha YSP4100 sound bar. I didn’t bother connecting it to my home network though, unlike the UB820 — no point, as I don’t need those limited services on the player. Build quality of the main unit seems quite good. Not as good as the UB820, but perfectly acceptable. Think LG or Samsung player quality plus a bit more. The lack of cooling fan is actually a blessing, because the fan on my UB820 is quite busy after playing a disc with a long run time. The disc tray on the UB450 is more substantial than that of the UB820 from what I can make out, which seems really flimsy by comparison. The big let down is the remote control handset. It works well enough, but the reduced size means that you have to be careful selecting the correct buttons, which if you have large fingers, might be an issue. Unlike the YouTube review, there was no rattle when I shook it. The UB450 is set to Panasonic remote control channel 1 and cannot be changed. This is the same default channel as the UB820, so to stop the remote clashing with it I’ve propped a bit of cardboard in front of it for now. The changing of the remote control channel is of absolutely no interest unless you happen to have more than one Panasonic device, which in my case, I do — a DMR-120 FreeviewHD PVR, also connected to my sound bar (more of this later). So, my PVR is set to channel 2 (Set Code 2) whilst the UB820 is channel 1 (Set Code 1). In practice, this means that because you can’t change the channel on the UB450, if you have other Panasonic kit you’ll have to change that, which is simple enough. However, the upside is that I can operate the UB450 using the remote handset from the UB820, although buttons for which there is no corresponding function are ignored, unsurprisingly. Luckily, I have an old Panasonic DMP-BD65 BR player from circa 2010, and the remote has a similar layout to that on the UB450, so I plan to use that at some point, if I keep the UB450. When the UB450 is in standby, if I use the remote from my PVR, the red power LED flashes briefly — if the UB820 is in play, then that will flash-up ‘Set Code 1’ messages on its front panel. When I use the UB450/UB820 remotes, the PVR flashes ‘Set 2’ messages in its front panel. This is how Panasonic kit works, nothing new here, but I mention it because it can get confusing if you’re not aware of it.
Set-up was straightforward out of the box, and the only thing that I had to change, like the UB820 setup, was the TV type, which is set to NTSC by default, not PAL. The manual supplied with the unit is very lightweight, and it’s worth visiting the Panasonic website to download the full version, not that the manual is needed in order to drive the player, as it’s pretty straightforward.
Overall, in terms of disc playback, I can see no real differences in picture quality between the UB450 and the UB820. I’m sure that there may well be, but without duplicate discs to use in any comparison I can’t really tell. My eyesight isn’t the greatest, but it’s still good enough to spot obvious issues. Although I haven’t tested extensively yet, here’s what I’ve found so far.
1) Using the first 10 minutes or so of the 4K DV disc ‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard’ the picture looks slightly less oversaturated compared to the UB820. Ryan Reynold’s flesh colour, for example, does not look quite so orange-looking. Detail is good.
2) Using the first 10 minutes or so of the 4K HDR disc ‘The Mule’ I could discern no difference at all between the UB450 and UB820. The UB820 does have an on-board optimiser, which I have checked (changing no other settings) and there is a very slight lift in brightness if enabled, but it’s so slight that I consider it a marginal improvement, if that. For both the UB450 and UB820 I much prefer the HDR picture quality. Now, that could be down to my LG TV, but the HDR picture on either player is absolutely stunning.
3) Playback of a standard BR, ‘Lucy’ was absolutely fine, other than the picture seemed a little darker than on the UB820. I think that I’ve addressed this by lifting the TVs brightness setting by 10%. Time will tell.
4) Playback of a DVD, ‘Black Sheep’ was also fine (with brightness lifted, as above), but the overall quality drop is quite noticeable compared to BR, which is understandable. I see the same on the UB820. The UB820 might make a slightly better job brightness-wise, but it does seem to highlight edge artefacts, which if I could be bothered, I could probably tame. I’m trying to reduce my DVDs, replacing those that I want to keep with BR versions, if they’re available. It’s double-dipping, but using either player DVD PQ is not brilliant. It’s OK, but no more.
I can’t tell any difference in audio quality between the UB450 and UB820. It all sounds good. I haven’t tried CD playback though, as I have a dedicated audiophile Yamaha player for that purpose. I’m pretty sure that the UB820 would sound far better than the UB450 though, given its additional audio capabilities.
On-screen messages are scant compared to the UB820. You have to rely on the TV advising that you have DV or HDR content, for example. The UB450 doesn’t tell you if it’s using 24p either — the UB820 does. (My TV does support 24p, so I'm assuming that the Automatic setting on the UB450 is working its magic. I've seen nothing to suggest otherwise.) The playback info. is on the lightweight side too. In reality, the only time that you’re going to use that is to get an idea of playback times, I think, because there’s no front panel display, unlike the UB820.
There are a few grumbles though. This is the first device that I’ve had where CEC doesn’t work quite as expected. With it enabled, player power-up switches the TV to the correct input. All as expected so far. I then have to switch my sound bar to the correct HDMI input for audio, just as I do if I’m using the UB820. After loading a disc, there are two screen negotiations, just as with the UB820, where the screen blanks momentarily. However, the UB450 seems a bit slower, as I sometimes get a ‘no signal’ message briefly. That’s not the real problem though. The problem, in my case, is that after the second screen blank, my TV is switched to the PVR HDMI input (ARC to TV). What I suspect is happening is that there is some noise or interference which is getting sent down the HDMI audio port from the UB450, which causes a switching impulse to be routed via the sound bar to the TV. Just why it selects the PVR input, I have no idea, unless perhaps there is some sort of hidden identifier which both the PVR and UB450 share, which confuses things. Speculation on my part though. I haven’t got to the bottom of this issue, but the workaround is to disable CEC. Pity, but no real loss. The other big issue is mechanical playback noise. Now, in fairness, I may be doing the UB450 an injustice here. I currently have it set-up on top of my Panasonic PVR, which in effect is a large empty metal box for the most part. That may well have been amplifying the player’s drive noise. I reduced this by a good 80% by using some soft neoprene equipment feet underneath it that I had from when I had a lot more a/v kit that I do now. I’ll need something more permanent in due course, but with the feet in place, I can only just hear playback noises if I mute the sound bar, which is pretty much in line with what I get from my UB820. Another grumble is the wall wart power supply. The person who designed that needs to be shot, metaphorically speaking. The UB450’s external PSU is the first that I’ve ever encountered where the cable protrudes from the case to the right, rather than the top or bottom, as is normally the case. Combined with the bulky case design and the next 3-pin socket next to the UB450’s wall wart is inaccessible. If you use a power strip, if you don’t have a socket that you can sacrifice, then the only option is to use the rightmost socket. I suppose that you could get round the issue by plugging-in the PSU into a socket doubler, which would then create sufficient clearance, but I haven’t tried that. It’s not the end of the world, but the design is pretty stupid, and has obviously been engineered by someone who has never seen a UK power socket. The menus are somewhat lightweight compared to the UB820, but in reality the only things missing are the HDR Optimizer settings, which I’ve had no need to touch on my UB820, and a lip sync setting. From memory, the default setting on the UB820 is 10ms, which I’ve reduced to 0ms. I suspect that the UB450 has the same default value. Thus far, I haven’t noticed any lip sync issues using the UB450, but I have done on the UB820 occasionally. Now, part of this may be well down to the fact that I’m using an LG TV, which, if you check the LG TV Forum here, you’ll see is an issue that affects just about all LG TV models, in some shape or form. USB handling is odd too. I can see no way to eject USB media safely, other than by first putting the unit into standby. Very poor. User
@cezarL asked me to test out the playback of multichannel .mkv files via USB stick — see the UB820 thread, posts #497 onwards. Based on my testing, if you’re expecting the UB450 to playback .mkv files that have Dolby or DTS multichannel audio, then you’re out of luck.
One other observation: according to the Panasonic website, the latest firmware for the UB450 is version 1.09. Mine has version 1.10 installed. I can’t find any reference to that anywhere on the ‘Net. Odd.
So, to sum-up, and apologies for the lengthy post. Based on my brief usage, I’m fairly impressed with the UB450. It’s not a UB820, for sure, but it’s close. If you don’t have a lot of media but want a decent enough player without spending lots of cash, then the UB450 may well fit the bill. It’s certainly a better bet, based on what I’ve seen here, to the LG UBK90, for example, which seems very similar.
I’ve only had the player for a few days, so I need to evaluate it some more, certainly within the 28-day JL return window in case I need to return it, so I’ll update this thread if anything else of interest surfaces. The biggest disappointments for me are the poor quality remote and the CEC problems. Neither are showstoppers though, but perhaps reflect the fact that, IMO, this player is something that’s made for Panasonic, rather than being made in-house, like the UB820. However, the UB450 does offer me scope to box-up my UB820 to keep as a spare (or the other way round). BR players are now an endangered species, so the UB450 would be a relatively inexpensive way to acquire a backup machine.
Cheers, Clem